Many businesses have a need to exchange information between a central location and employees operating in the field. In the computerized age, most of this information is probably stored on a computer system. Because many field employees may have a laptop computer, handheld computer or personal digital assistant with which to work. Thus, it would be beneficial to enable the exchange of information between the computer system and the devices deployed in the field.
One example of a use for such a system would be a field engineer that responds to trouble calls. At the start of a day, the engineer may need to determine his daily tasks and at the end of the day he may need to report it back to his employer. Rather than get this information verbally, it would make more sense to download the tasks he has to perform that day from a central computer system. When he finishes the day, he would respond to the computer system with reports relating to the calls, setting forth the trouble found, the repair performed and the time it took to complete the job.
Another example may be a sales person who is calling on a customer. If that customer wants to change a previously placed order, the sales person may need to record the modified order and place that order for the customer. Doing this through a computer system would make much more sense than doing it verbally and would provide a record of the transaction.
Certain companies that have a need for providing devices like this may have certain employees that need more processing power than others. Thus, it may be necessary to deploy more than one type of mobile device. Some people may end up using personal digital assistants, while others use handheld computers, while still others use laptops. Others, that do not travel, may use desktops. For ease of use and management, it then becomes important that the software being used to perform the various tasks be platform-independent so that it may run on all these devices.
It also is important to permit the information to be entered on the devices while the device is off-line. Field personnel are not always in locations where they can establish connectivity to the computer system. It would be beneficial to permit the field personnel to enter the information they need to transmit back to the computer system when it is convenient for them, such as immediately following the repair, rather than making them enter the information while the device is on-line with the computer system.
It is also important for ease of use that when people are working off-line, the software operates in a similar way with the same look and feel as though they were actively operating on-line.
Because computer systems of this type can have hundreds or thousands of mobile device users that access the computer system from time-to-time, an easy way to keep track of what software is loaded on what device and to control the same is imperative. Thus, an easy way to control, manage, and monitor software installation on the devices is needed.
A need exists for a device, such as a mobile device or a desktop computer, that can run business applications offline and to synchronize data with a computer systems over a standard Internet connection or other network and which can download and install or deinstall software automatically.